Sermon from March 29, 2009
Each sermon I preach stands alone. It has to. I never speak to the same congregation two weeks in a row. However, if you listen Sunday after Sunday, you’ll know that I string sermons together into a necklace of ideas. Certain themes carry through from week to week and unite sermons into a modest body of work.

For example, the first sermon in the current series presented the message of Revelation, the only extended prophecy in the New Testament: Evil will be overcome, no matter how awful it gets, and it will get awful. The nations will be converted to Jesus Christ. Central to both is the Church’s sacrificial witness to Christ, who will come again into human history to judge the living and the dead and to rule the nations.

The second sermon built on that by summarizing three characteristics of biblical prophecy. First: it offers insight into the human situation in which the people of God find themselves in their generation. Second: a rule of thumb for prophetic prediction is that the more specific the prediction, the sooner it has to happen. But it may also have a future fulfillment. Third: biblical prophecy is always a call for obedience to God right now.

With that in mind we considered one of the most potent symbols of evil in the Bible or anywhere else. Revelation called Rome, the center of a massive empire, a prostitute. I asked if that symbol offers insight into our situation, and I suggested that it does; it gives us a new way to view our most cherished American value, freedom.

The next sermon developed that theme. The liberal understanding of freedom says that the most important thing about you is the freedom to choose the values you will live by, not the values themselves. No values have intrinsic authority over your freedom to choose. All values are neutral until you choose to live by them. That’s why people say, “What’s true for you isn’t necessarily true for me.” Furthermore, no authority outside yourself can tell you what values you should choose to live by; not parents, not church, not school, not government. That understanding of freedom has been embodied in American law, politics, education and entertainment.

The Christian faith offers an alternative understanding of freedom. It says that the most important thing about you is your freedom to do the will of God. You don’t choose the values you live by as though all values were equal. You don’t make it up as you go along. Freedom comes from walking the path God has chosen for human flourishing. The sermon today applies those conflicting ideas of freedom to a specific situation.

The Dilemma
I start with something else I said in the previous sermon. A lot of good has been accomplished by people who hold the liberal understanding of freedom. It would be mean-spirited and dishonest not to acknowledge how our nation and the world have benefited from it. There are two reasons for its success.

First, most people actually live closer to the Christian idea of freedom than they do to the liberal idea of freedom. Most people accept the idea that they should do to other people what they want other people to do to them. That value is written deep in the heart of every human being. Theologians and philosophers call it the moral law of human nature. It is part of human nature as much as the genetic code.

There’s a second reason for liberalism’s success. Our government has built a complex framework of laws that gives to the maximum number of people freedom to choose the values they will live by. American law doesn’t coerce people to submit to objectionable moral action. Roe v. Wade, for example, doesn’t coerce any woman to have an abortion. That’s why supporters call themselves pro-choice. Oregon law that permits doctor-assisted suicide doesn’t coerce anyone to end life that way.

However, the claim not to coerce people is wearing thin. That comes as no surprise, if all values are neutral. Some kind of force is necessary to break the impasse caused when large masses of citizens choose mutually exclusive values. I’d like to talk about the rise of democratic coercion and its spiritual significance. The first thing I have to do is to set up a painful conflict in you. I begin with an eloquent expression of anguish.

“I strongly believe in the sanctity of human life; therefore I’ve always been against abortion. However, several years ago, I had an experience that has thrown my thoughts (and emotions) into turmoil regarding that subject.

“My wife and I were camping somewhere and took a walk around the camp area. We passed an elderly couple pushing a baby carriage. We assumed it was a grandchild and thought no more about it.

“Later, I was walking to the washhouse, when I encountered the man alone pushing the carriage. Because he apparently felt a need to tell someone, he said, “She looks like a baby, but she’s 39 years old.” I later saw the couple feeding their daughter and saw how tired and beaten down they looked. I experienced a feeling of guilt that our two sons and six grandchildren were all healthy and robust. Does God really expect us to find joy in such a situation?

“I absolutely abhor women who get abortions because it’s inconvenient or they don’t like the sex of the child, and I more than abhor the doctors who are making a fortune dealing in abortions. But in this day and age where technology probably can predict that a child is horribly damaged – well, I just don’t know what to feel.

“And what will happen to that child . . . when the caregivers die? Would appreciate your perspective.”

So, what do you think? What spiritual advice should I give to people I love who pose such a dilemma? Before you answer, you need the other side of the conflict.

At this point show (or readers should access) the following video: (http://www.guzer.com/videos/are-you-going-to-finish-strong.php, accessed February 19, 2009)

Are you a better person for having seen that? Would Nick have deserved to die by abortion, if pre-natal screening had revealed his lack of limbs? How could you have known beforehand? “And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.” (Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, 93)

Can you feel the terrible conflict these stories create in us? I know you can. Life and death are at stake. Robert George, Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton, believes the soul of our nation is at stake in how we resolve this conflict. There is evidence that Caesar is becoming impatient with this conflict.

Turning Up the Heat
President Clinton said one time that abortion should be “legal, safe, and rare.” It’s as close as any prominent Democrat has come to saying that pro-life people have a point. However sincere the President may have been about that, I don’t think too many abortion advocates have been sincere about it. I can’t imagine Planned Parenthood or an abortion doctor showing a girl an ultra-sound image of the child in her womb and saying to her, “We are prepared to do the abortion, but we want you to know how serious it is to have an abortion. We also want you to know the physical and mental health risks of abortion to you.” Would they make such a presentation to teenagers in high school health classes? They would reject it out of hand as coercive.

My question is: In what sense are abortion advocates pro-choice, when health care professionals do not present both choices seriously? If they do not really offer an informed choice, how close is that to coercion?

You could say, “Well, crisis pregnancy centers don’t offer an informed choice either. What they do is pretty coercive, as you have described coercion.” That’s true, but neither do they nor we who support them pretend to be pro-choice. We have one goal: to save unborn children.

Matters become even more troublesome in pre-natal screening. There is now medical technology (preimplantation genetic haplotyping [PGH]) that makes it possible “to screen embryos in the in vitro fertilization process for 6,000 inherited diseases.” (First Things, October 2006, 76) Doctors can screen embryos for many of those diseases in the womb. Nick Vujicic wouldn’t stand a chance.

The power to predict disease has a coercive side. Elizabeth Schlitz is an Associate Professor of Law at St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis. She described herself this way: “I am one of the dwindling number of women who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome and choose not to terminate our pregnancies. . . . A recent book even branded me as a ‘genetic’ outlaw.” (ibid)

A genetic outlaw! That’s coercive language. Does it represent a trend to make women feel socially irresponsible for giving birth to children, who aren’t perfect? I hope you hear what I’m saying and think to yourself: “What happened to freedom? I thought freedom meant doing anything you want, as long as you don’t prevent others from doing anything they want.” Let’s take this attack on freedom a step further.

It would be easy for health insurance providers to say, “If you want to carry your Down syndrome or legless or spina bifida child to term, that’s your business, but we’re not going to pay for it.” That’s coercive. If it happens, please remember: It’s not about money; it’s about values. People will always pay for what they believe and cherish and honor. Just look at the federal budget for fiscal 2010.

The Beast
Political and economic power can become a terrible evil. The book of Revelation expresses that possibility in two powerful symbols: the great prostitute and the beast. John called Rome the great prostitute. We’ve talked about that.

John also called Rome the beast. The crucial passage is Revelation 13. Verse two says: The dragon (the devil) gave the beast (Rome) his power and his throne and great authority. It is a grave accusation against the political order to say that it has become demonic. John made it because the Roman political order had turned coercive and even violent toward the Church. Look at verse seven: He (the beast) was given (by the devil) power to make war against the saints and to conquer them.

Revelation gives the Church a warrant to use this image any time a political order becomes coercive and violent against the Church; but we need great restraint in using it. I am not making that accusation in this sermon. I do want to alert you to disturbing trends that point the American political order in a direction it must not go. We will look at another, blatant one at the end of April.

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
The book of Deuteronomy is a theological interpretation of the long and mysterious history of the Jews. Chapter 30 of that book presents an impassioned plea to the Jews to embrace their unique, divine calling. The plea culminates around the perennial decision that faces the people of God. Verses 19-20b: This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against them that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life.

I have set before you life and death. Now choose life. But let’s not romanticize suffering. Choosing life doesn’t mean choosing the easy path. Joni Eareckson became a quadriplegic in a diving accident, when she was 17. She spoke at our church in Oregon and said, “I’m 43 years old. Half my life is over. I don’t look forward to the next half.”

At the same time it is possible to choose death. “Elderly patients are being killed in the Netherlands without their consent. (http://www.internationaltaskforce.org/fctholl.htm, accessed February 26, 2009) A new protocol for euthanizing newborns with disabilities is institutionalized in the Netherlands, and the doctor who authored the protocols, Eduard Verhagen, tells us how ‘beautiful’ it is when the newborns are killed, for, at last, they are at peace.” (Elshtain, “While Europe Slept,” First Things March, 2009, 34) I disagree, Dr. Verhagen. The newborns will never know what hit them. You don’t care about their peace; you care only about your own.

Let’s not minimize the moral abyss that medical technology and cost analysis have opened in the soul of our nation. We just don’t want to be bothered with imperfect babies and troublesome old people. They’re too expensive to keep, and we want more out of life than the trouble of taking care of them. We deserve more than that. “Our problem now is . . . the horrid vision of man, master of nature but not of himself, the possessor of nature who has lost his own identity.” (John Courtney Murray, We Hold These Truths, 186)

I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life. How did Nick Vujicich choose life? He writes this on his web site: “As you can imagine, I still got hung up on the fact that if He really loved me, why did He make me like this? I wondered if I’d done something wrong and began to feel certain that this must be true. Otherwise, I thought, God wouldn’t have made me the only weird one out of all the kids at school. Feeling I was a burden to those around me, I sensed the sooner I’d just go away altogether, the better it would be for everyone. So, at a young age, I wanted to end my pain and my life.”

“God directed me to Romans 8:28 and there I found this, ‘And we know that in all things God works for the best for those who love Him.’ Wow! That verse really spoke to my heart. It convicted me to the point where I’m confident that there’s no such thing as luck, chance or coincidence and that these ‘bad’ things happen in our life to make us more like Christ.” (http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/about-nick-vujicic.php, accessed February 26, 2009)

Jesus Christ saved Nick from meaninglessness, suicidal thoughts, and being a helpless victim. He can do the same for you and more, if you become His devoted follower. I have set before you life and death. Now choose life. Choose Christ!